Potato cultivar FL1879

ABSTRACT

A novel potato cultivar of the genus and species  Solanum tuberomasum , designated FL1879, is disclosed. The invention relates to the tubers of potato variety FL1879, to the plants of potato variety FL1879, to the seeds of potato variety and to methods for producing hybrid potato variety. The invention further relates to potato variety tubers, seeds and plants produced by crossing the potato variety FL1879 with another potato plant, and to Single Gene Converted plants.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of now abandoned U.S. applicationSer. No. 09/364,044, filed Jul. 30, 1999.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a novel potato variety and to thetubers, plants, plant parts, tissue culture and seeds produced by thatpotato variety.

The publications and other materials used herein to illuminate thebackground of the invention and, in particular cases, to provideadditional details respecting the practice, are incorporated byreference and for convenience, are referenced in the following text byauthor and date and are listed alphabetically by author in the appendedbibliography.

The potato is the world's fourth most important food crop and by far themost important vegetable. Potatoes are currently grown commercially innearly every state of the United States. Annual potato productionexceeds 18 million tons in the United States and 300 million tonsworldwide. The popularity of the potato derives mainly from itsversatility and nutritional value. Potatoes can be used fresh, frozen ordried, or can be processed into flour, starch or alcohol. They containcomplex carbohydrates and are rich in calcium, niacin and vitamin C.

To keep the potato industry growing to meet the needs of the consumingpublic, substantial research and development efforts are devoted to themodernization of planting and harvesting of fields and processing ofpotatoes, and to the development of economically advantageous potatovarieties. Through crossbreeding of potatoes, researchers hope to obtainpotatoes with the desirable characteristics of good possibility, highsolids content, high yield, resistance to diseases and pests andadaptability to various growing areas and conditions.

The U.S. acreage planted in potatoes has declined since the 1960s and1970s, and this decline, coupled with increasing consumption, must beoffset by higher useable yields. In some areas, diseases and pestsdamage crops despite the use of herbicides and pesticides. The problemof the golden nematode in the United States, presently endemic toportions of New York State, is one example of the destruction tosusceptible potato varieties. Potato varieties with high yields, diseaseresistance and adaptability to new environments can eliminate manyproblems for the potato grower and provide more plentiful and economicalproducts to the consumers.

For the potato chip processing industry, potatoes having high solidscontent, good shipping qualities and good finished chip color canincrease production volumes and efficiencies and product acceptability.Potato varieties which yield low-solids tubers result in unnecessaryenergy usage during the frying process. Moreover, as solids contentincreases, the oil content of fried products decreases, which is afavorable improvement. Potato varieties in the warm southern tier ofstates are most in need of solids improvement overall, while thosevarieties grown and stored in the colder northern tier of states aremost in need of the ability to recondition after cool or cold storage toincrease their value for use in the potato chip industry. Reconditioningis necessary to elevate the temperature of the potatoes after coldstorage and before further processing.

The research leading to potato varieties which combine the advantageouscharacteristics referred to above is largely empirical. This researchrequires large investments of time, manpower, and money. The developmentof a potato cultivar can often take up to eight years or more fromgreenhouse to commercial usage. Breeding begins with careful selectionof superior parents to incorporate the most important characteristicsinto the progeny. Since all desired traits usually do not appear withjust one cross, breeding must be cumulative.

Present breeding techniques continue with the controlled pollination ofparental clones. Typically, pollen is collected in gelatin capsules forlater use in pollinating the female parents. Hybrid seeds are sown ingreenhouses, and tubers are harvested and retained from thousands ofindividual seedlings. The next year a single tuber from each resultingseedling is planted in the field, where extreme caution is exercised toavoid the spread of virus and diseases. From this first-year seedlingcrop, several “seed” tubers from each hybrid individual which survivedthe selection process are retained for the next year's planting. Afterthe second year, samples are taken for density measurements and frytests to determine the suitability of the tubers for commercial usage.Plants which have survived the selection process to this point are thenplanted at an expanded volume the third year for a more comprehensiveseries of fry tests and density determinations. At the fourth-year stageof development, surviving selections are subjected to field trials inseveral states to determine their adaptability to different growingconditions. Eventually, the varieties having superior qualities aretransferred to other farms and the seed increased to commercial scale.Generally, by this time, eight or more years of planting, harvesting andtesting have been invested in attempting to develop the new and improvedpotato cultivars.

Long-term, controlled-environment storage has been a feature of thenorthern, principal producing areas for many years. Potatoes harvestedby October must be kept in good condition for up to eight months intemperatures that may drop to −30 degrees C. at times and with very lowrelative humidity in the outside air. Storages are well insulated, notonly to prevent heat loss but also to prevent condensation on outsidewalls. The circulation of air at the required temperature and humidityis automatically controlled depending on the purpose for which thepotatoes are being stored. Sprout inhibition is now largely carried outin storage as it has been found to be more satisfactory than theapplication of maleic hydrazide (MH30) in the field.

Proper testing of new plants should detect any major faults andestablish the level of superiority or improvement over currentvarieties. In addition to showing superior performance, a new varietymust be compatible with industry standards or create a new market. Theintroduction of a new variety will increase costs of the tuberpropagator, the grower, processor and consumer; for special advertisingand marketing, altered tuber propagation and new product utilization.The testing preceding release of a new variety should take intoconsideration research and development costs as well as technicalsuperiority of the final variety. Once the varieties that give the bestperformance have been identified, the tuber can be propagatedindefinitely as long as the homogeneity of the variety parent ismaintained. For tuber propagated varieties it must be feasible toproduce, store and process potatoes easily and economically.

Thus, there is a continuing need to develop potato cultivars whichprovide good processability out of storage, with minimal bruising, formanufacturers of potato chips and other potato products and to combinethis characteristic with the properties of disease resistance,resistance to pests. The present invention addresses this need byproviding the new variety as described herein.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention, there is provided a novel potato cultivar ofthe genus and species, Solanum tuberosum, designated FL1879. Thisinvention thus relates to the tubers of potato variety FL1879, theplants and plant parts of potato variety FL1879 and to methods forproducing a potato plant produced by crossing the potato variety FL1879with itself or another potato variety. This invention further relates tohybrid potato seeds and plants produced by crossing the potato varietyFL1879 with another potato plant.

In another aspect, the present invention provides for Single GeneConverted plants of FL1879. The single gene transferred may be adominant or recessive allele. Preferably, the single gene transferredwill confer such traits as herbicide resistance, insect resistance,resistance for bacterial, fungal or viral disease, uniformity andincrease in concentration of starch and other carbohydrates, decrease intendency of tuber to bruise and decrease in the rate of conversion ofstarch to sugars. The single gene transferred may be a naturallyoccurring gene or a transgene introduced through genetic engineeringtechniques.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A novel potato cultivar of the present invention, which has beendesignated FL1879, has been obtained by selectively crossbreedingparental clones through several generations. The immediate parents ofFL1879 were cultivars designated FL1207 and Snowden. These parentstrains were selected for the ability to be processed into light-coloredpotato chips when stored several months at cold temperatures and fortheir properties of a high number of tuber sets and good yieldpotential, as well as high content of dry matter.

FL1879 cultivar has olive green foliage. This cultivar has medium, butultimately vigorous vine growth and few white flowers and producestubers which are characterized by a pale yellow flesh color, a goodspecific gravity, moderately high dry matter content, and asubstantially smooth, slightly oval shape. As a chipping variety to begrown principally for processing out of storage, the most appropriatevariety with which to compare FL1879 is the commercial cultivar Snowden,which is one of the parental lines. A comparison of FL1879 with Snowdenreveals that FL1879 has semi-erect growth habit and produces oval, paleyellow fleshed tubers while Snowden's growth habit is more erect, hasless compact plants, and produces round, white fleshed tubers. Whileboth FL1879 and Snowden have white flowers that are similar, floweringis much more frequent in Snowden.

FL1879 has average yields slightly higher than Snowden and its solidsare slightly lower. FL1879 is highly resistant to Tuber Early Blight,which is a significant benefit in the Southwest. The tubers produced byFL1879 are well-suited for the production of potato chips. Acharacteristic feature of the tubers is their comparatively goodspecific gravity relative to the standard commercial variety in aproduction area. The specific gravity generally ranges from about 1.070to 1.079; however, it will be appreciated that specific gravities canvary substantially depending upon growing conditions and areas. Higherspecific gravities are advantageous for chipping and other frying,applications, as they reduce the total energy and time required for thefrying operation.

In addition to the specific gravity of the tubers of this invention,they also have an advantageous shape for commercial operations. Thetubers are smooth skinned and generally lack knobs and otherprotuberances, as well as deep ridges or convolutions. Accordingly, theyare amenable to efficient washing and peeling operations usinglarge-scale automated equipment. Such shapes produce a high qualityproduct with a minimal amount of waste. The tubers are generally oval inshape and have a size which is suited to the manufacture of potatochips. On average, these tubers have a mean length of 80 millimeters(range: 62-105 millimeters); a mean width of 73 millimeters (range:60-90 millimeters); and a mean thickness of 52 millimeters (range: 40-68millimeters) based upon a 100-tuber sample. Of course, the size of thetubers can vary over a relatively Wide range depending on growingconditions and locations. The slightly flattened shape of the tubers isadvantageous, because it facilitates alignment in the slicing apparatus.

Among the more important characteristics of the potato cultivar of thisinvention is its resistance to tuber blemishes caused by early blight(Altemaria solani), which is a significant threat to production in theSouthwest. Additionally, it has pale yellow flesh and producesattractive chips both fresh from the field and after storage fromOctober through April. A comparison of the storage life of tubers fromthe parent cultivar, Snowden, and the cultivar of this inventionillustrates that the cultivar of the invention has a storage life whichis approximately eight months longer than that of Snowden.

Other advantageous properties of the plants of the present inventioninclude its potential as a storage chipping variety for the northernstates of the United States, as well as areas of Texas and New Mexicothat grow chipping potatoes for storage.

In addition to the morphological characteristics and disease and pestresistance as described above, the plants of this invention arecharacterized by their protein fingerprint patterns. The protein“fingerprint” is determined by separating tuber proteins on anelectrophoretic gel under certain defined conditions. The pattern of theproteins, attributable to their differential mobilities on theelectrophoretic gel, have been found to be characteristic of theparticular plant involved. This pattern has thus been termed a“fingerprint.” Isozyme fingerprints of all available North Americanpotato varieties have revealed that no two varieties have the samepattern for the enzymes tested. (Douches and Ludlam, 1991). The Isozymefingerprint of FL1879 has been established as distinct from that of anyother variety tested, including Snowden (Douches and Ludlam, 1991).These techniques generally involve extracting proteins from the tuberand separating them electrophoretically.

Potato variety FL1879 has the following morphologic and othercharacteristics.

VARIETY DESCRIPTION INFORMATION 1. Classification: Solanum Tuberosum L.2. Plant characteristics: (Observed at beginning of bloom) Growth habit:Semi-erect (30°-45° with ground) Type: Intermediate Maturity (Days afterplanting- 135 DAP): Maturity Class: Late (121-130 DAP) 3. StemCharacteristics: (Observed at early first bloom) Stem (anthocyanincoloration): Absent Stem (wings): Medium 4. Leaf Characteristics:(Observed fully developed leaves located in the middle one-third ofplant): Leaf (color): Olive green/137A RHS Leaf (pubescence density):Medium Leaf (silhouette): Medium Petioles (anthocyanin Absentcoloration): Terminal leaflet (shape): Medium ovate Terminal leaflet(shape of tip): Cuspidate Terminal leaflet (shape of base): ObtuseTerminal leaflet Weak to medium (margin waviness): Primary leaflets(average pairs): 3 Primary leaflets (shape of tip): Acuminate Primaryleaflets (shape): Medium ovate Primary leaflets (shape of base): Lobed5. Inflorescence Characteristics: Corolla (shape): Pentagonal Corolla(inner surface color): White/155D RHS Calyx (anthocyanin coloration):Absent Anthers (shape): Narrow cone Stigma (shape): Capitate Stigma(color): 137A RHS 6. Tuber Characteristics: Skin (predominant color):Tan Skin (texture): Smooth Tuber (shape): Oval Tuber (thickness):Slightly flattened Tuber (length): 80 mm (average) Tuber (width): 73 mm(average) Tuber (thickness): 52 mm (average) Tuber eyes (depth):Intermediate Tuber (primary flesh color): 160D RHS Tuber (prominence ofSlight prominence eyebrows): Tuber (number per plant): Medium (8-15) 7.Reaction to Diseases: Bacterial ring rot foliar reaction SusceptibleBacterial ring rot tuber reaction Susceptible Late blight PhytophthoraModerately resistant infestans Early blight Resistant Leaf roll (PLRV)Not tested Virus X Not tested Virus Y Highly susceptible 8. Reaction toPests: Golden nematode Susceptible Globodera rostochiensis

Persons of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that when the termpotato plant is used in the context of the present invention, this alsoincludes derivative varieties that retain the essential distinguishingcharacteristics of FL1879, such as a Single Gene Converted plant of thatvariety or a transgenic derivative having one or more value-added genesincorporated therein (such as herbicide or pest resistance. Backcrossingmethods can be used with the present invention to improve or introduce acharacteristic into the variety. The term backcrossing as used hereinrefers to the repeated crossing of a hybrid progeny back to therecurrent parents. The parental potato plant which contributes the genefor the desired characteristic is termed the nonrecurrent or donorparent. This terminology refers to the fact that the nonrecurrent parentis used one time in the backcross protocol and therefore does not recur.The parental potato plant to which the gene or genes from thenonrecurrent parent are transferred is known as the recurrent parent asit is used for several rounds in the backcrossing protocol. In a typicalbackcross protocol, the original variety of interest (recurrent parent)is crossed to a second variety (nonrecurrent parent) that carries thesingle gene of interest to be transferred. The resulting progeny fromthis cross are then crossed again to the recurrent parent and theprocess is repeated until a potato plant is obtained wherein essentiallyall of the desired morphological and physiological characteristics ofthe recurrent parent are recovered in the converted plant, in additionto the single gene transferred from the nonrecurrent parent.

The selection of a suitable recurrent parent is an important step for asuccessful backcrossing procedure. The goal of a backcross protocol isto alter or substitute a single trait or characteristic in the originalvariety. To accomplish this, a single gene of the recurrent variety ismodified, substituted or supplemented with the desired gene from thenonrecurrent parent, while retaining essentially all of the rest of thedesired genes, and therefore the desired physiological and morphologicalconstitution of the original variety. The choice of the particularnonrecurrent parent will depend on the purpose of the backcross. One ofthe major purposes is to add some commercially desirable, agronomicallyimportant trait to the plant. The exact backcrossing protocol willdepend on the characteristic or trait being altered or added todetermine an appropriate testing protocol. Although backcrossing methodsare simplified when the characteristic being transferred is a dominantallele, a recessive allele may also be transferred. In this instance, itmay be necessary to introduce a test of the progeny to determine if thedesired characteristic has been successfully transferred.

Likewise, transgenes can be introduced into the plant using any of avariety of established recombinant methods well-known to persons skilledin the art.

Many single gene traits have been identified that are not regularlyselected for in the development of a new variety but that can beimproved by backcrossing and genetic engineering techniques. Single genetraits may or may not be transgenic, examples of these traits includebut are not limited to: herbicide resistance; resistance to bacterial,fungal or viral disease; insect resistance; uniformity or increase inconcentration of starch and other carbohydrates; enhanced nutritionalquality; decrease in tendency of tuber to bruise; and decrease in therate of starch conversion to sugars. These genes are generally inheritedthrough the nucleus. Several of these single gene traits are describedin U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,365, U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,756, U.S. Pat. No.5,789,657, U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,999, U.S. Pat. No. 5,589,612, U.S. Pat.No. 5,510,253, U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,730, U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,429, U.S.Pat. No. 5,503,999, U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,249, U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,912,U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,533, U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,268, U.S. Pat. No.4,900,676, U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,434 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,168, thedisclosures of which are specifically hereby incorporated by reference.

Deposit Information

A deposit of the Frito-Lay, Inc. proprietary potato cultivar FL1879microtubers disclosed above and recited in the appended claims has beenmade with the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), 10801 UniversityBoulevard, Manassas, Va. 20110. The date of deposit was May 6, 2003. Thedeposit was taken from the same deposit maintained by Frito-Lay, Inc.since prior to the filing date of this application. All restrictionsupon the deposit have been removed, and the deposit is intended to meetall of the requirements of 37 C.F.R. §1.801-1.809. The ATCC accessionnumber is PTA-5177. The deposit will be maintained in the depository fora period of 30 years, or 5 years after the last request, or for theeffective life of the patent, whichever is longer, and will be replacedas necessary during that period.

Hereinabove has been set out a new variety of potato, Solanum tuberosum,designated as FL1879, including its physical characteristics andqualities by way of illustration and example for purposes of clarity andunderstanding. It will be obvious that variations are possible withinthe scope of this invention, as limited only by the scope of theappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A potato tuber designated FL1879, wherein asample of microtubers has been deposited under ATCC Accession No.PTA-5177.
 2. A plant or its parts, each produced by growing the tuber ofclaim
 1. 3. Pollen of the plant of claim
 2. 4. An ovule of the plant ofclaim
 2. 5. A potato plant having all of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of the plant of claim
 2. 6. Tissue cultureof the plant of claim
 2. 7. A potato plant regenerated from the tissueculture of claim 6, said plant having all of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of a potato plant having ATCC AccessionNo. PTA-5177.
 8. A potato plant regenerated from the tissue culture ofFL1879 and wherein said regenerated plant has all of the physiologicaland morphological characteristics of a potato plant having ATCCAccession No. PTA-5177.